20 March, 2014

Sewing With PUL

A few weeks ago a request came to our small Quilting Bee from a fellow member, Spokes and Stitches, for handmade bibs. There is a project underway through Love Without Boundaries for items to make the lives of babies undergoing cleft surgery a little brighter and more comfortable. I found a free online bib pattern by Heather Bailey and began to pull fabrics from which to make up a few; that was, until, I had an in-person conversation with my friend who made the request. She has a son who has already undergone one cleft surgery; her sweet boy has a second one scheduled for next month. She well understands the need for these bibs and she likes for his to be as waterproof as possible. She explained that since drool is excessive a shirt can quickly become soaked through; she showed me some PUL; a waterproof fabric that she had only just purchased. PUL was new to me; it's soft to the touch and comes in solid colors as well as child-friendly prints. After seeing hers I decided to give it a try; I got some and found it to be extremely easy to work with. I used PUL for my bib fronts, backing them with soft flannel. The only special attention that I gave to this new-to-me fabric was a fresh, sharp, needle and avoidance of placing the iron directly onto the PUL itself. I did press the bibs, and they did just fine, but I pressed them from the flannel side.

While sewing the bib fronts and backs together I kept the flannel side down, against the throat plate, so that the bibs would feed through smoothly and not "stick" or bog down. I used an overedge stitch for construction. The PUL that I bought was in a three-pack of precuts, each piece measured 21" X 24" and, with precise attention to placement, I found that I was able to get three bibs from each piece! I had never made bibs before, this pattern was wonderful to work from; I found the process to be fun and rewarding!

Try something new today, I, for one, am glad that I did! I hope and pray that these bibs will be much loved and well used by their precious little recipients.Life is Good!

My son and DIL used cloth diapers for our granddaughter that they bought thru someone else... anyway, this PUL was the material of choice. Not only had they found their diapers second hand, but as our granddaughter grew they sold what they had to the next user. What a wonderful way to keep paper diapers out of the land fills. When our kids were little we used cloth all but the first 2 months of their life. Thanks for sharing, I didn't realized that is what the fabric was called. Learn something new every day hmmmm?

I discovered PUL when my daughter had her first baby and wanted to use cloth diapers. PUL is used for the outside shell of the diaper, and there is a growing cottage industry comprised of moms who make these diaper covers, sell "diaper cuts" of PUL so you can make your own, and sell kits, comprised of PUL and sets of snaps. It uis so main stram now, that you can find these kits in places like Joann's and Michael's! When Kate went back to work, her daycare required a number of "wet bags" to put soiled diapers in, I ended up buying PUL and making a bunch of those bags because it was so much cheaper than buying the premade ones. PUL can also be used to make large wet bags that are suitable for carrying wet bathing suits home from the gym/pool or from the beach. Who knew? I really like this idea for the bibs. The PUL is softer than a laminated fabric!

A wonderful, wonderful project! I've used PUL for other projects and have been meaning to use it for bibs and forgotten. So your sweet reminder and wonderful tips are just what I needed to read to get them back onto my giving list. We have access to a nurse/missionary who visits Guatamala regularly and the children there need bibs, cloth diapers, washcloths etc. all the time. When we send things they are brought straight to the local hospitals and sent home as care packages for new mother and babies. When they have no supplies available, they send home newspaper and the moms use that even for diapers for the newborns. We are so blessed in America and it is so good to be reminded of those who need our love and assistance!

I am a little confused, wouldn't the PUL bib allow the dribble/drool to just run down and off onto the childs clothes?If I was making them I would put the PUL or ripstop nylon on the back of a double thickness towelling or flannel bib that would absorb the dribble/drool. Just my thoughts. Rieann in Western Australia